Breaking the Silence's post
Breaking the Silence
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Katz, Israel’s defence minister, called to dismiss Avi Bluth, the IDF commander responsible for the West Bank, apparently for being too harsh on settler terror. Let’s use this opportunity to examine the policies Bluth advanced and the “harsh measures he took against terror”.
In March, a group of settler terrorists raided Khirbet Humsa in the West Bank. They beat the villagers, sexually assaulted a man in front of his family, and threatened to kill the children and rape the women. Six people were evacuated for medical treatment after the attack.
Afterwards, Tal Yinon Dardik, a settler who, according to the IDF, was personally involved in the incident, received an order barring him from entering the West Bank. After violating the order, Dardik was placed in “administrative detention”, which means imprisoning people without trial, bypassing due process.
Israel uses it mostly against Palestinians in the West Bank and, rarely, settlers suspected of terror. It’s an unacceptable measure. Everyone deserves a fair trial. It occasionally targeted Israelis to bypass Israel’s general policy of providing impunity for settler terrorists.
Avi Bluth, however, is by no means a fighter against settler terror. Soon after he entered the position in 2024, he assigned an officer to directly coordinate the establishment of settler outposts in the West Bank.
These outposts are at the forefront of Israel’s project of ethnic cleansing through terror in the West Bank and are directly responsible for the forcible displacement of 64 communities: 4,328 people, including 2,061 children. In Bluth’s own words, establishing these outposts is part of the IDF’s doctrine.
After October 2023, IDF-backed settler terror became a daily occurrence. The political goal behind it is the annexation of the West Bank while forcing Palestinians into shrinking, fragmented enclaves. Under Bluth, this project accelerated dramatically.
On 21 January 2025, the IDF started a large-scale operation in refugee camps across the West Bank. The IDF demolished entire residential blocks. 45,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced and, for the most part, are still not allowed to return.
Against this backdrop, the Israeli government approved the establishment of new settlements, including the Jenin area. Some are being built just a few kilometres from the refugee camp, which the IDF considered a terror stronghold while conducting a military operation there.
It’s dangerous, and the settlements must be protected, right? That’s why Bluth signed a land-seizure order in PA-administered Area A for a military base near Jenin. He signed another land-seizure order in Area A for a road linking two new settlements, which may turn Jenin into an enclave.
Avi Bluth was in no way harsh on settler terror. If anything, his legacy will be one of consistent IDF backing for settler violence, major campaigns of ethnic cleansing and annexation, and the largest displacement in the West Bank since 1967.
Sienna Lou Ampersand
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the whole project is 
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